**5. Conclusions**

Several diets have been studied to reduce the risk of developing diabetes and to control hyperglycemia. Almost all of them focus on decreasing body weight so they reduce body fat content as well. Many of the diets are beneficial in delaying the onset of diabetes and to diabetic patients. However, some of the diets require for the patients to be monitored constantly. Many plant products used in traditional medicine around the world have been scientifically studied to determine the efficacy, mechanism and side effects with focus of their effects on hyperglycemia. Diabetes being a complicated disease, T2DM patients may benefit more if multi targeted therapy is given. In addition to diet, another important factor that will help T2DM is the level of physical activity and exercise. Any diet with exercise is more beneficial than either one alone.

Mayo clinic recommends diet rich in fiber, vegetables, fruits and whole grain with low fat dairy products [100]. The American Diabetic Association and The American Heart Association recommend a balanced plate similar to that of USDA (**Figures 3** and **4**) with half plate of vegetables, a quarter plate of healthy carbohydrates such as brown rice, whole wheat couscous, whole grain pasta or plain sweet potato and some less than a quarter plate of protein [101, 102]. Fats are essential to the body as they are integral part of the cell membrane and hormones. They are required to digest any fat that is consumed. However, there has been a debate whether saturated fats are required for the body or not. The importance of having less than 10% saturated fat in the diet is now recognized although instead of saturated fatty acids, mono and poly unsaturated fatty acids are recommended. With respect to nutritional supplements there is no recommendation from American Diabetes Association. However, there is an increase in the number of patients seeking complementary and alternative medicine due to lower side effects and cost effectiveness. With a steady increase in scientific authentication of plant products for preventing and treating medical conditions nutritional supplements may become more popular. Interestingly, many of the plant products are consumed almost everyday in many cultures and these population also report diabetes. One reason maybe because they do not eat it everyday at the required dosage in addition to major change in lifestyle from an active on to a more sedentary one, as seen in any developed societies.

With many options for diets to choose from for patients, it is important to remember that as individuals differ among themselves, a individualized diet is important and equally important is adhering to the diet [103]. For diabetic patients to help control the progression of the disease, it is important to consider bio individual needs of each patients. Whether it is the choice of drugs, nutrition therapy or life style changes, it is important to have individually tailored treatment regimens for diabetic patients based on several factors including the ethnicity, life style, choice of foods etc. Other important factors to consider, in T2DM patients, are how much endogenous insulin is produced, and the level of insulin resistance to recommend diets that can target β-cell function and tissue-specific insulin sensitivity [104]. In T1DM patients it is critical to monitor the insulin that is administered and adjust

#### **Figure 3.**

*USDA recommended 'my plate' showing recommended portions of each macronutrients: Carbohydrates (40–60%); proteins (10–35% for males; 13–15% for females), fats (20–35%). (fiber 25 g) https://www.fns.usda. gov/cnpp.*

#### **Figure 4.**

*ADA recommended plate model for balanced food intake. %0% vegetables, 25% protein and 25% carbohydrate is recommended with a glass of water or no calories drink. https://diabetes.org/nutrition.*

the macronutrients to avoid hypoglycemic condition. Most of the time carbohydrate counting in the diet is recommended for T1DM patients.

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**Author details**

Jameela Banu

*Nutritional Interventions: Diet Modifications, Nutritional Supplements, Complementary…*

Department of Health and Biomedical Sciences and Department of Biology,

© 2020 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,

University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Edinburg, Texas, USA

\*Address all correspondence to: jameela.banu@utrgv.edu

provided the original work is properly cited.

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.94645*
